I have become somewhat of a confidante to my low-income/first-gen students. They gravitate towards me and I often end up helping them overcome obstacles that many middle-income or above students would never even consider to be an issue.
I’m not sure if this has been mentioned, but there have been studies that show that low-SES students have a much harder time asking for help and advocating for themselves (I know there was discussion about it but I didn’t read through it).
For me, the hardest part was knowing that I didn’t have the safety net that many of my peers had. I didn’t have insurance for part of college and if anything went wrong I would have nothing to fall back on. It kept me awake at night more than once. I had to miss the funeral of a man who was like a father to me because I didn’t have the money to go there (this was only a few weeks into my freshmen year). I put off going to the doctor because I couldn’t afford it. When I got into a car accident, I didn’t want to go to the hospital because I didn’t have insurance. I didn’t have time to do research or get involved in ECs because I was working full time. With all that said, I was extremely fortunate to have professors who became parent-like figures to me and always looked out for me. I don’t know if I would’ve had that elsewhere- I can’t say.
On another note, one of the reasons I chose my PhD program was because at the recruitment day they said “We don’t expect you to come in to this program with a dime. We expect that you have no other resources other than our support and we will do everything to get you through your program. We will buy you a suit, a root canal, tires, anything that comes up.” I really can’t explain to you how much that influenced my decision and it is not something many students think about. (It probably comes as no surprise that the PhD program has a lot of low-income/first-gen students.)
My point being, as others have previously commented, power and authority, and what it looks like at a retail level is far different for many communities. So, I wish this was as pizza girl puts it, taught, but that is much easier said than done. This is especially true, when your entire surroundings say something different and are not reinforced in your every day life…
Didn’t a young man on one of the CC threads leave Harvard after his freshman year and went back up to NYC to commute to college living with his family in a small two room apartment? And was much happier.
Well isn’t that the whole point of the social engineering to bring low SES kids into these schools? To groom them to take their place in the power wielding class?
That’s a rather crass, ideological way to presume why these institutions are helping low-SES students attend, GMT. They are offering opportunities to attend and study at this level so that the students’ range of potential in life may be greatly widened and enhanced.
Yes, some may choose to participate in a strata of society that dominates others. But many students at these institutions, whether poor or rich, will choose a myriad of academic paths, each leading to a different outcome. Many may become leaders in their respective fields, but the fields themselves aren’t necessarily conducive to power-wielding.
Because, over the course of a school year she has some history with them. She is a remarkably kind and genuinely nice person and does not want to just tell them to go ---- off despite the fact they are acting up. As per the topic of this thread, I’m sure that would have strong implications for every misconception they might hold about the wealthy.
I’d say becoming an expert in one’s field accrues a certain degree of social influence. And how would a public policy expert in poverty, for example, exert their influence?
A widely regarded public policy expert has opportunities to shape public and political perception via advocacy in thinktanks, NGOs, politics.
You don’t have to be the king himself to wield power. Even Anne Boleyn had the power to manipulate Henry the VIII to abandon the Catholic Church and found the Church of England…
I agree with you. Except for the part where you sanitized the focus on poverty. Not insignificant, considering where many of the low-SES students – the subject of the thread and article – came from.
I’ve already stated the opposite multiple times in this thread: the students have no obligation whatsoever to pursue a certain path of study, and the institutions are highly unlikely to make any such demands (unless, perhaps, a student is admitted under the precondition of a specific discipline of study).
I have also stated multiple times: I do not consider it coincidental that the first two interviewed students at Harvard in the article chose of their own volition (and I mean here that they were not coerced) to major in sociology. And further down, another graduate student interviewed was also a sociologist. I don’t think any of them were obliged, and I also don’t think these students made their choices based upon how much power they could wield in society.
I’m ready to take a break from this, GMT. How about you?
This alleged “pressure to buy high end luxury items” has nothing to do with rich or poor. It’s not as though a richer girl would automatically just go along and buy luxury items she has no interest in owning because other girls suggest it. This story seems odd, no surprise.
I have 2 girls who are fairly fashionable and they have some luxury items. I have only heard them (rolling their eyes at times) talk about their friends buying some nice/expensive items (again), but I have never heard them talk down or say anything disparaging about someone for not having luxury items.
My niece could afford more expensive stuff, but she chooses to shop at Target (or pronounce it with a French accent). She belongs to a southern sorority and she fits right in.
I think all this talk about people feel pressured to have to own certain things or dress a certain way at those schools is just a lot of talk with misconception. I bet you most of the students (rich or poor) don’t really care that much.
My kids tell me what their friends’ parents do if those parents are CEO of a company or if they are famous, otherwise they don’t make a point of finding out or telling me about it. D1 said to me once, “You know we have better things to talk about than about our parents.”
Exactly. My D, like yours, has some luxury items. She’s very understated in how she dresses and presents herself, and really could not GAS what her friends own and don’t own. Nor does she know what their parents do for a living beyond very general understanding.